Afro-Town Topics: A Conversation with Angel Bat Dawid

By Shannon J. Effinger

For Angel Bat Dawid, fearlessness comes naturally. She survived a brain tumor diagnosis while in college. Last year, she was hospitalized for several weeks battling COVID-19. And just hours after her own COVID diagnosis, Dawid’s younger sister, who suffered from chronic asthma, died from complications due to COVID-19. What keeps her going? Her faith and a promise she made to her sister to keep going.

“My sister was my biggest cheerleader. She was so proud of me and all the music,” says Dawid during our recent phone conversation. “She wouldn't want me to be sad right now; she wants me to keep doing music and not stop because she knows it makes me happy.”

None of this has seemed to slow Dawid down. As Artist-In-Residence of this year’s Winter Jazzfest, she says that this opportunity lends her the support needed to stretch herself creatively and compose new music. The following are excerpts from our conversation, in which we discuss her career to date, the larger discourse around racism in America and some of what she has in store for this year’s installment, featuring Marshall Allen, the longtime leader of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

SJE: It's hard to fathom that nearly eight years ago, you decided to leave your job behind in pursuit of your true calling and passion for music. Has this unprecedented time allowed you any moments for reflection?

ABD: Absolutely! I slowed down my life tremendously since the pandemic. It’s just safer to quarantine as much as possible. I take care of myself a lot more. I’ll opt to sit and watch a movie with my parents instead of answering an email. Alphabetizing my record collection and listening to my extensive music collection is just as important as practicing. And I feel so much stronger and at peace with this kind of life. It just keeps getting better and better. I also decided I was not ever gonna stress about anything anymore. Stress is a bad habit, and I don’t allow it to enter into anything I do. I don’t meet DEADlines anymore, only LIFElines. I turn my phone off at night and read books in the morning and the evening, do [my] The Five Tibetan Rites [exercises], and do my work with ease — I love what I do. It’s fun. And I stay in a grateful mood. Three words keep me going: “RIGHT MENTAL ATTITUDE.” That is how one will always be rich and wealthy. I learned that from a great book, Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice by Dennis Kimbro.

“Afrofuturism,” a term first coined by writer Mark Dery, attempts to encapsulate the total breadth of the Black experience —past, present & future. Arguably, Chicago has been a haven for Afrofuturist artists, thinkers, and storytellers. If you can express it in words, how have ChiTown and the tenets of Afrofuturism shaped you and your artistic expression?

I have the same reservations about “Afrofuturism” that I have with the word “jazz.” Afrofuturism is what they are calling this surge of Black expressionism. With that being said, if a term is going to be used to describe what I do, I want to be the person in charge of defining it and not some white person’s twisted idea of what Blackness is, especially in regard to the arts.

This time has finally allowed honest conversations on racial injustice in this country and worldwide. I feel, in many ways, your LIVE album — and the ordeal you experienced in Berlin — has helped significantly to move us forward in actually discussing race/racism. More needs to be done. What does “change” in this regard look like for you?

Change means that this whole system must be destroyed, not understood or accepted anymore, but completely eradicated. Racism is like a beautiful, delicious, gorgeous chocolate cake that someone made for you, but they put a molecule or more of shit in it. I don’t care how tasty and delicious that cake is; it’s still a shit cake. And that’s what we live in. Racism is in everything. During the pandemic, I did this virtual performance video explaining how racism is in everything. It’s based on the work and research of Neely Fuller Jr., who said, “If you don't understand white supremacy/racism, everything that you do understand will only confuse you.”

Marshall Allen is one of the most underrated living giants of this music. It feels very much like he’s passing the baton along to you. Describe what it has been like to record, perform and collaborate with Allen in the last few years.

Dreams come true! All I can say is that I’m humbled and utterly grateful and have wept tears of joy to not only meet my sonic heroes but to actually perform with them. Marshall Allen has contributed to my next album coming out this fall, Cry of Jazz. I mixed the whole project, so when I was sent the Marshall Allen stems, I was in my home studio just amazed to have these recordings of him, hearing his breath and the chills of his powerful tone in my headphones. I just couldn’t believe that this was happening and still happening. I’m just amazed, humbled, and hope to continue the legacy of preserving this Black music so well like Sun Ra and all the other spiritual musicians who left us with such important works!

“AFRO-TOWN TOPICS: A MYTHOLOGICAL AFROFUTURIST REVUE” — can you break down what this will entail? Will it combine performance and discussion?

So here’s the scoop on “Afro-Town.” A few months ago, I was in my studio, and “Sunny Side of The Street” popped into my head. I was humming it all day. I went to look it up, and this is what I found: “On the Sunny Side of the Street” is a 1930 song composed by Jimmy McHugh with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Some authors say that Fats Waller was the composer, but he sold the rights to the song.

Red fucking flag—white people are stealing [Black] peoples’ things and claiming it as their own AGAIN. This led me down a road researching Tin Pan Alley and its racist ways. Fast forward into this millennium, there’s still this messed up music industry doing the same thing. 

I started researching more about these great composers (Fats Waller, Andy Razaf, and James P. Johnson). They were highly accomplished composers, lyricists, poets with operas and symphonies, etc., but never taken seriously, and where their work was mostly stolen or sold.

People sold their music because they got families and mouths to feed. I had to know more, so I ordered this piano roll LP of Fats Waller's music, and mysteriously, a few paragraphs were circled in red on the back of the record.

One was addressed to Johnson (being Fats Waller's mentor). I looked up the address on Airbnb and found that there was a space in the same building. I also saw that Johnson’s scores were under lock and key at Rutgers. So I began making plans to go to New York to stay at JPS, study his work, and compose something from the research.

I emailed Rutgers and said I was vaxxed and would wear 100 masks and social distance, and could I come through and look at the scores. I got a response of denial because they were only open to students due to COVID, etc. Now I didn’t want to shoot the messenger. Still, I was outraged because here I am, a Black composer wanting to study the works of the Black composers. This institution that is so proud of having his collections is denying a young Black composer access to something that I should have access to.

I told the librarian that it was unacceptable and even emailed the president about how frustrating this was and to make an exception. A few days later, the librarian hit me up, and he just so happened to be Black. He said his hands were tied, but he completely understood and agreed with me.

He even went so far as to send me copies from the over $200 rare book about Johnson, written of course by a white male. It was a nice gesture, and I was very appreciative, but I'm still furious with these white-led institutions and schools. Are they accommodating, or are they doing the right thing?

Anyway, this squashed my hopeful journey, but a few days later, Winter Jazzfest hit me up about being Artist-in-Residence this year. And then I knew… ahhhh, that's why I felt the need to go to NYC.

So I did more research about Fats Waller and his wonderful handsome cohort from Madagascar, Andy Razaf. This duo was responsible for “Ain't Misbehavin’,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” etc. These songs came from a big hit musical revue called Connie’s Hot Chocolates.

So for the residency, I decided I was gonna write a musical revue like my heroes. Connie’s Hot Chocolates was originally called Tan Town Topics, Tan being white folks they thought that title would get them on Broadway. So I decided to do Afro-Town Topics. And the rest has been a magical journey. 

Afro-Town Topics is a musical news broadcast. The news reports come from Ebonys, Jets, books in my library and are broken up into the important topics of Afro-Town. I adore Sun Ra because he called himself a Myth Scientist, and mythology has stories that point to important truths. Fables and parables hold rich and beautiful information that can never be stolen or sold.

“Sing me your folks songs, and I’ll tell you about the character customs and history of your people,” a quote from the great Paul Robeson, so Afro-Town is a mythological space with a lot of truths and mystery. Musical revues mix music and dance, skits, and comedy, and I knew I wanted to work on something like this for my residency.

Now that WJF has been postponed once again due to COVID-19, what else can we expect from you in this largely virtual format of the program?

Well, the slice of delicious pie is because I am in Chicago, my home, so I can actually do more because the expenses of traveling and putting folks up in hotels took up most of my budget. Being here in Chicago made it so I could actually have more musicians and pay them all more money. And everyone in this ensemble has the best Chicago has to offer, all Black and all my good friends I love dearly. And with Afro-Town being a news show, having it done virtually makes sense. I still have all the plans of doing Afro-Town live in front of an audience. I can’t wait for that day!